vbl. sb. [f. FUND v. + -ING1.] The action of the vb. FUND (sense 1); conversion of a floating debt into a permanent one.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., V. iii. (1869), II. 521. We had recourse to the ruinous expedient of perpetual funding.
1792. A. Young, Trav. France, 517. It remains a subject of infinite curiosity, to see how far the infatuated and blind spirit of funding will now be pursued.
1845. McCulloch, Taxation, III. ii. (1852), 447. Funding is now effected in France as in England, by granting interminable annuities redeemable at pleasure.
attrib. 1790. M. Cutler, in Life, Jrnls. & Corr. (1888), I. 463. That Congress have it not in their power to guard against foreign speculation, and that they ought to pay no regard to this matter in their establishment of a funding system.
1846. M’Culloch, Acc. Brit. Emp. (1854), II. 428. In the infancy of the funding system it was customary to borrow upon the security of some tax, or portion of a tax, set apart as a fund for discharging the principal and interest of the sum borrowed.
1892. Daily News, 29 June, 2/3. The directors protest against the receipt of funding bonds instead of the cash guarantee.
